Do You Want to Have A Heart Attack?

We may say “Of course not,” but are we really doing all we can to prevent our risk of heart disease, heart attack, or stroke?If you missed all the red dresses, lapel pins, scarves, and cool high heels on Feburary 1st, 2013, that was the tenth anniversary of National Go Red Day.This is a day created to shine a spotlight on heart disease in women. But one day is just the start of the entire month of heart health awareness.

Heart disease strikes more women than breast cancer.It is the number one killer of women…That’s right, one of every 31 women will die from breast cancer, and one in three will die of heart disease-

one a minute

That’s scary, especially when you can lower your risk by 80%:

lower high cholesterol,

reduce high blood pressure,

eliminate smoking,

stay near goal weight,

30 minutes of physical activity

control diabetes

The other 20 % of risk comes from factors we can’t change: family history and age.

In the past 12 years, younger women are having heart disease, strokes, and heart attacks. Astudy*, which followed 1.4 million heart attack patients for 12 years, found that 42 percent of the women experienced a heart attack without any chest pain, compared to 30 percent of the men in the study. Heart attacks also led to death in more of these women —

“…possibly because they didn’t think they were having a heart attack in the first place, and therefore put off going to the hospital.”

Most of the women with these atypical symptoms were younger (less than 55 years old).So what are the symptoms?

In addition to chest pain and discomfort,watch for:

Fatigue

Shortness of breath

Pain or numbness in places like your jaw, arms, stomach, or back

Nausea or vomiting

Dizziness or lightheadedness

Breaking out into a cold sweat

Doctors say that many women think they are stressed, or have a pinched nerve, or have the flu, so they never go to the hospital. Sort of like the woman in this comedy sketch:

But in all seriousness, do you know what to look for in a person who may have just had a stroke?

Help yourself, and others, by remembering the acronym F.A.S.T: (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) or

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Published by AlvaradoFrazier

I write YA and Adult fiction about strong women, difficult circumstances and characters on both sides of the law. Member of SCBWI.
My short stories are included in anthologies published by the University of Nevada and Harvard College press of 2017 and 2018.
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